Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin) in the Norse
Context of the Southern Coast
of the Baltic Sea
WADYSAW DUCZKO
Although not nomadic, Scandinavians were a people on the move. Welldocumented in both written sources and archaeology, Scandinavian
voyaging reached its peak during the Viking Age (between the late eighth
and eleventh centuries), when they travelled far and wide to undertake
various activities. For three centuries Norsemen sailed on their well-built
ships along the coasts of Europe in search of plunder. But raiding was not
the sole purpose of their activity. In addition to stealing things and people,
Scandinavians also stole land: They took over the North Atlantic islands,
parts of Anglo-Saxon Britain, Ireland, Frankia, and various territories in
eastern Europe, which everywhere caused short- and long-term changes
in the ethnic composition of local populations (Loyn 1994, Byock 2001,
Duczko 2004). The Vikings large-scale looting eventually turned into
equally successful economic occupation. When they had had enough
of plundering, Scandinavian pirates started to engage in trading goods,
specializing in slaves, and commerce became the principal reason for
their travels.
The Norsemen were mainly interested in the riches of the West and
the East, but they also recognized the opportunities to be found in places
that were much closer to home, such as the southern coast of the Baltic
Sea, populated by Slavs, Balts, and Finns. From the early eighth century
and during the ninth century the Danes and Swedes established several
emporia, centres for trade and crafts, along this long coast and increased
the circulation of commodities within an already functioning interregional
trade network (Jns 2009).
Among these trading sites, Wolin, known as Jumne, was the most
famous. In the 1070s, Adam of Bremen mentioned it in his chronicle of
Duczko, Wadysaw. 2014. Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin) in the Norse Context of
the Southern Coast of the Baltic Sea. Scripta Islandica 65: 143151.
144
Wadysaw Duczko
the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen as a most noble city, affords a
very widely known trading centre (Tschan 1959: 66). During Adams
time, the glory-days of Wolin were already history, but the memory of
Wolins former greatness was kept alive and used as a theme in Norse
literature, especially in Jmsvkinga saga composed by medieval authors
living in Iceland.
Wolin was founded on the island of the same name located in the eastern
part of the estuary of the river Odra (Oder). The island was part of a larger
agglomeration that consisted of another island, Uznam (Usedom), and
Kamie Pomorski (Cammin), a settlement on the Pomeranian mainland.
Taking advantage of its strategic position deep within the estuary of a great
river that connected the Baltic Sea to the Slavic lands in the south, the
settlement that appeared on the eastern side of the island of Wolin, close
to the river Dziwna (Dievenow), developed in the early ninth century into
a centre of thriving trade. Its importance peaked between the mid-tenth
century and the beginning of the eleventh century, and it eventually lost
its position after year 1043, when King Magns of Norway and Denmark
destroyed the city.
Historians and archaeologists have focused their attention on VikingAge Wolin for a long time. The Icelandic sagas story about Jmsborg, a
fort occupied by a Norse warrior-community that functioned as a kind of
secular order, made many scholars, who identified Wolin with this fort,
to see it as a purely Scandinavian site. However, archaeological research
has changed this once dominant opinion by introducing results that have
allowed for a new approach to the early history of the town. It is now clear
that the original settlement on the eastern shore of the island of Wolin was
Slavic. It was restricted to an area on a hill that lay on one of the islands
that originally comprised Wolin before it much later became a part of the
mainland (Stanisawski 2013b: 287).
What the initial impulse for founding this site was we do not know. The
small size of the first site and its weak contacts with the outer world show
that early Wolin had little to offer traders, which meant that the island was
left outside of the mainstream of trading in the Baltic (Sindbk 2006). It
is possible that in the beginning people on the island were more interested
in agrarian economy than in trading. In the long run, this appears to have
been a sensible choice: The production of food attracted the attention
of traders and sped up developments on the island. Structural changes
introduced during the second part of the ninth century considerably
enlarged what was previously a very modest settlement and show that
Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin)
145
the opportunities offered by the place were finally being recognized
(Stanisawski & Filipowiak 2013: 279).
The serious nature of ongoing changes manifested itself in various ways,
mainly through the erection of exclusive houses in the central part of the
settlement at Stare Miasto Old Town, but also through the construction
of a harbour on the river Dziwna and, most notably, the building of a
wall for defence. This sort of urban unit points to the establishment of
an elite who were involved in new kinds of activitiestrading and
craftswhich exposed them to the dangers of plundering raids. Wolin
was becoming a regular port of trade similar to many other pre-existing
sites around the Baltic. Further developments that occurred in the first
decades of the tenth century also reveal that the town was successful: A
new district was built that consisted of houses arranged in a regular way
on the Srebrne Wzgrze Silver Hill, north of the main settlement, which
was rebuilt and also surrounded by a much stronger wall. In the same
period a chain of forts along the river Dziwna were built that secured the
city from the sea.
Wolin was systematically gaining an important position in the network
of long-distance trade. Evidence for this includes the building of a new
district with a harbour in the Ogrody Gardens, a district between Stare
Miasto and Srebrne Wzgrze, with many houses in which a variety of
foreign goods were stored. Another phenomenon that clearly demonstrates
the growing wealth of the people of Wolin are the many hoards of silver
coins, Islamic dirhams, deposited in and around the town in the middle
of the tenth century (ak 1963). The phenomenon of hoarding is usually
connected to Scandinavians, the main actors in the Baltic trade, who
were now also making their appearance on the island (Duczko 2005;
Stanisawski 2013a: 201). The Norse presence, which had been almost
non-existent in the early phases of Viking-Age Wolin, was now taking
up more space and exerting more influence. The clearest trace of this
can be found in the form of a large house built in the late 960s during the
heyday of the main settlement in Stare Miasto. Its central location and the
kind of material used for its constructionoak, a tree that was already
rare on the islanddemonstrate the exceptional nature of the building
and its purpose. Finds from this place provide us with the evidence that
it was serving people from the North. Artefacts such as twelve wooden
knife-handles decorated in Scandinavian manner with plait-work, three
miniature swords and five small wooden figures, obviously representations
146
Wadysaw Duczko
of gods, tell us about the ethnicity of the people in the house (Stanisawski
2013b: 131 f.).
The site with the oak-house was not the only place in Wolin where
Norsemen dwelt from the end of the tenth century to the first decades
of the eleventh (Filipowiak 2004). There are at least seven such places,
including wooden houses, where typical Norse objects have been dis
covered: jewellerysilver pendants, two round brooches, and amulets in
the shape of Thors hammer made from silver, iron, and ambergaming
pieces, and again, wooden handles with excellently executed plait-work,
a lot of schist whetstones and soap-stones for pots of Norwegian origin,
even some weapons, not forgetting to mention lumps of Scandinavian
iron ore, and, last but not least, a piece of wood with a runic inscription
(Stanisawski 2013b: 162 f.). What we have here is a collection of easily
recognizable items of Norse origin far more numerous than was previously
believed would be the case in the city.
Not all of the aforementioned artefacts were initially recognized as
works by Norsemen. Especially one, a very famous object, is notorious:
a little wooden piece with four heads on the top that was identified as a
representation of the Slavic god wiatowid (Svantovit) uncovered in a
building that was subsequently thought to be a Slavic temple (Filipowiak
& Gundlach 1992). From my studies it became obvious that this artefact
belonged to the Norse religious sphere, not only because of the charac
teristic element with four faces, but also because of the shape of the
elongated part, which is in fact a whetstone with the same decoration as
an item found in the Oseberg ship (Duczko 2000: 26).
In the same study I was able to attribute a large number of items found
in Wolin to a local Norse workshop. These included the aforementioned
wooden and bone knife-handles decorated with plait-work of a type wellknown in Insular-Scandinavian art, the one that was especially often
employed in the stone-art flourishing among the Norsemen on the Isle of
Man (Duczko 2000: 25). The number of items with such decoration and
their homogeneity show that artisans who had been trained in Britain were
working in Wolin. I have coined a term for this artthe Pomeranian
School of Insular-Scandinavian Art (Duczko 2000: 29). The use of this
art was not restricted to the town of Wolin, we also come across examples
of it in Kamie Pomorski and Szczecin (Stettin), which is only to be
expected as those places were closely connected with each other, and
also beyond. Many of the objects with the typical motifs of this art were
discovered in the main centres of the young Polish state of the Piasts: in
Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin)
147
Gniezno (Gnesen), Giecz, Santok (Zantoch) and some others; they were
also found in lsk (Silesia), the south-western territory conquered by
the Piasts in the 980s (Jaworski et al. 2013). The distribution of products
that are characteristic of the Wolin workshop indicates the existence of a
special kind of relation between the city and the rulers of Poland.
What can the aforementioned Norse archaeological source material
from Wolin tell us about this site when we compare it with other trading
sites on the southern shore of the Baltic? There are several of themin
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Gross Strmkendorf, Rostock-Dierkow, and
Menzlin, on Rgen: Ralswiek, further east in Polish Pomerania: Bardywielubie (Bartin-Zwillipp) near Koobrzeg (Kolberg), and two sites
on the coast of the Balts: Truso in Prussia and Wiskiauten in Sambia
(Jns 2009, osiski 1975, Jagodziski 2010, Zur Mhlen 1975). One
distinguishing feature is significant: Wolin was founded later than these
other emporia which in most cases were established in the early eighth
century. Equally important is that they appeared in the regions where a
Scandinavian presence had been unbroken since at least sixth century
(Duczko 1997; Dulinicz 2001). The other important fact is thatwith
exception of Truso and Wiskiautenthese sites only existed for a century
or two: Gross Strmkendorf (probably known from written sources as
Reric) was active until the first decade of the ninth century, RostockDierkow fell into disuse in the middle of the ninth century, Menzlin was
gone around 900, and only Ralswiek continued through the tenth and
eleventh centuries (Kleingrtner 2011: 185).
The main feature of these sites is their wholly Norse character:
families, with a very clear presence of Norse women, and graves with rich
inventories, sometimes placed within stone-ship settings, in some cases in
real boats, burials of warriors together with weapons and standard Norse
material culture, sometimes with exclusive jewellery of Danish type.
Menzlin has to be considered as a special site. Located on the river Peene,
only about ninety kilometres west from Wolin across the Bay of Szczecin,
it was occupied by Danes and comprised a complete Norse society, where
the infrastructure with a harbour, stone roads and bridges was standard
and where the burial ground with family graves was visible in the land
scape in a most impressive way.
How does Wolin look in this context? Different, as we have already been
able to see. Wolin was fortified while none of the other aforementioned
emporia, with the exception of Truso, was protected by a wall. It appears
certain that Norse families did not dwell in Wolin, unlike in Menzlin and
148
Wadysaw Duczko
other sites from the coast where evidence for their existence is easy to
discover.
The presence of entire families, with women and children, is a necessary
prerequisite for the creation of a society with a distinctive culture, as is so
well manifested in eastern Europe, where many settlements can be easily
recognized as Scandinavian because of family burials with classic Norse
elements (Duczko 2004: 9).
The absence of typical oval brooches as well as extremely few finds
of female jewellery in Wolin is a revealing feature. It is well-known that
Norse women used a lot of ornaments as can be seen from finds not only
in their own countries but also abroad. The few finds of Norse ornaments
lead us to assume that some Norse women were living in Wolin, but they
were not many. Only a pair of very untypical oval brooches have been
discovered here, along with another pair of round brooches with a fourvolute motif, which are not in an orthodox, standard form. This reinforces
the idea that the Norsemen did not constitute a consolidated group acting
as a regular society here.
So the presence of so few Norse women can be taken as an indication
that the Scandinavian community in Wolin was not functioning as in
the other Norse emporia along the Slavic and Baltic coasts. Does this
mean that the Jmsborg with its brotherhood of warriors was a reality
and not a legend? Not exactly. Contradicting the contents of the saga are
the very few finds of weapons and similarly the few burials of warriors,
practically none of the kind in the form of chamber-graves known from
Birka, Hedeby, Pskov, and Gnezdovo. Alas, we cannot be sure that such
elite burials never existed in Wolin because the grave-fields that once
existed to the south of the city have since been destroyed and they may
have contained special burials, about which we know nothing.
So the weak presence of Norse women is matched by only a few
traces of warrior culture, which makes the legendary existence of the
Jmsvkings look even more legendary. However, we have to notice
what is special about Wolin, namely the activity of a workshop producing
knife-handles with Insular decoration: This is an important indication
of the presence of a group of males of Danish origin with Anglo-Saxon
connections enjoying the art they were accustomed to.
What usually gives a site outside Scandinavia a distinctive Norse
flavour are finds of artefacts with runic inscriptions. Such thingson
pieces of wood and bonewere found in West Pomerania, namely in
Wolin and Kamie Pomorski, in both cases within settlements. Objects
Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin)
149
with runes are so intimately connected with Scandinavian culture that
any attempts to see them as neutral things, or trading goods, should be
treated as a misunderstanding of Norse civilization (Liestl 1970). It is
worth remembering that Scandinavians had been using writing since
the beginning of the first millennium, while West Slavic societies were
illiterate, and that the use of runes had many purposes, among which
magic was reportedly the most important. It should also be stressed that
when objects with runes appear outside Scandinavia, they are usually
discovered in places where Norsemen were evidently dwelling, which is
also the case in Wolin.
We can be sure that Danes were living in the town, where they played an
important, but temporary, leading role in the Slavic community of Wolin.
They were traders and warriors, some of them both at the same time,
like many other Scandinavians during the Viking Age. It is possible that
persons with names like Plnatki, Sigvaldi or Styrbjrn, who according
to Jmsvkinga saga, were deeply involved in Danish-NorwegianSwedish conflicts, were staying in Wolin, possible in the Ogrody district,
as is suggested by Baej Stanisawski (2013b: 288).
However, as their presence there was not recorded in reliable written
documents, they have to remain literary heroes.
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Summary
The article discusses archaeological material regarding the Viking-Age settlement
of Wolin (Wollin) identified as the Jmsborg of the Icelandic sagas. The study
shows that Wolin stands out among other Scandinavian settlements on the
southern shore of the Baltic Sea such as Gross Strmkendorf, Rostock-Dierkow,
Menzlin, and Ralswiek. Firstly, Wolin was founded later than other emporia in
the region. Secondly, the character of the Scandinavian presence is different.
Wolin is characterized by a distinct Slavic core and a short-lived presence of
a Scandinavian elite with a clear underrepresentation of Norse women. Other
emporia bear evidence of a continuous Scandinavian presence and wholly Norse
character, including families, with a very clear presence of Norse women, and
graves with rich inventories. Thirdly, Wolin was fortified while none of the other
aforementioned emporia was protected by a wall. Another striking element of the
archaeology of Wolin includes plait-work of the Pomeranian School of InsularScandinavian Art.
Keywords: Archaeology, Jmsborg, Wolin (Wollin), Slavic-Scandinavian
contacts, Southern Baltic, Viking Age
Wadysaw Duczko
Pultusk Academy of Humanities
ul. Daszyskiego 17
06-100 Putusk, Poland
[email protected]
SCRIPTA ISLANDICA
ISLNDSKA SLLSKAPETS
RSBOK 65/2014
REDIGERAD AV
LASSE MRTENSSON OCH VETURLII SKARSSON
GSTREDAKTRER
JONATHAN ADAMS
ALEXANDRA PETRULEVICH
HENRIK WILLIAMS
under medverkan av
Pernille Hermann (rhus)
Else Mundal (Bergen)
Gurn Nordal (Reykjavk)
Heimir Plsson (Uppsala)
UPPSALA, SVERIGE
Publicerad med std frn Vetenskapsrdet.
Frfattarna och Scripta Islandica 2014
ISSN 0582-3234
Sttning: Ord och sats Marco Bianchi
urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-235580
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-235580
Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
rds Edda Jhannesdttir & Veturlii skarsson, The Manu
scripts of Jmsvkinga Saga: A Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Workshop Articles
Sirpa Aalto, Jmsvkinga Saga as a Part of Old Norse Historiog
raphy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Leszek P. Supecki, Comments on Sirpa Aaltos Paper . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Alison Finlay, Jmsvkinga Saga and Genre. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Judith Jesch, Jmsvkinga Sgur and Jmsvkinga Drpur: Texts,
Contexts and Intertexts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Daniel Svborg, Bi the Dragon: Some Intertexts of Jmsvkinga
Saga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Alison Finlay, Comments on Daniel Svborgs Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Jakub Morawiec, Danish Kings and the Foundation of Jmsborg. . . 125
Wadysaw Duczko, Viking-Age Wolin (Wollin) in the Norse
Context of the Southern Coast of the Baltic Sea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Michael Lerche Nielsen, Runic Inscriptions Reflecting Linguistic
Contacts between West Slav Lands and Southern Scandinavia. . . 153
Henrik Williams, Comments on Michael Lerche Nielsens Paper . . 173
Jrgen Udolph, On the Etymology of Jmsborg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Alexandra Petrulevich, Comments on Jrgen Udolphs Paper. . . . 211
Marie Novotn & Ji Star, Rendering Old Norse Nouns and
Names in Translation into West-Slavic Languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Islndska sllskapet
Agneta Ney & Marco Bianchi, Berttelse om verksamheten under
2013. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
